Azhar Khanmohamed, Commons Manager
They / Them
Azhar Khanmohamed is a 1st gen Pakistani organizer with roots in Los Angeles, California, Atlanta, Georgia, and San Antonio, Texas. After completing their education in 2020, Azhar has gone on to work on a number of food sovereignty, housing justice, and movement-building projects across the country, deepening their skills as a farmer, community organizer, fundraiser, popular educator, and network weaver. Most notably, they co-founded Atplanta, a sliding scale vegetable garden service and community farm/nursery in Atlanta, and they served as the senior network strategist for the LA Housing Movement Lab, which seeks to build the movement for decommodified housing in Los Angeles. Through these experiences, they have developed a political framework which emphasizes the decommodification of basic human rights, and the cultivation of community-controlled economic systems that prioritizes frontline communities.
In addition to their movement-building work, they are also a yoga instructor at Tree Yoga Co-op, a BIPOC yoga studio in South LA, and an outdoor educator with Outward Bound Adventures, a youth development organization which takes BIPOC youth of color into the outdoors. As a facilitator in these contexts, they often deploy popular education, somatics, and eco-literacy to support the critical examination of existing institutions and expansion of the radical imagination.
In their free time, you can probably find Azhar surfing their local beach break 🏄🏽‍♂️ , exploring the outdoors 🏞️, thrifting for a new outfit 👗, or recreating tik tok trends with their friends 🙂
Cris Juárez, Communications Manager
She / Her / Ella
Cris Juárez joins Agrarian Trust as Communications Manager. She’s deeply inspired to support every effort to secure land for farmers who, valorously, continue to steward the land with their communities and the environment in mind. Cris brings a wealth of experience including multimedia storytelling, farming, and community organizing.
Cris was born and raised in unceded Kumeyaay Territory, borderlands of Tijuana/SanDiego where she continues to reside. Cris loves growing food, medicinal herbs, and flowers in and for her community as well as weaving relationships of trust and care. She is interested in practicing and strengthening horizontality in the spaces she participates in. Cris is the co-founder of Pixca Farm, Inecui Flowers, and Tianguis de la Raza.
Keesa Johnson, Commons Network Manager
She / Her
Keesa is joining us as the Commons Network Manager, a new role at Agrarian Trust focused on building relationships and learning opportunities among the commons. With Agrarian Commons across the country working on innovative approaches to land access and building resilient foundations for community-based ownership and regenerative agriculture, we look forward to the organizing Keesa will lead in this exciting new role. Stay tuned for more as she gets started and add her full bio here. In the meantime, learn more about her current work and projects below and on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keesavjohnson
Keesa V. Johnson, MDes is an award-winning learning designer, human systems thinker, and culturecologist. Her design practice is focused on creating socially just and equitable food futures. She uses African and indigenous methodologies as tools for change and transformation. Keesa is currently co-founder of the hyperlocal design firm, the Equity and Access Group, which works on various food systems projects throughout the state of Michigan.
Marcel De Los Santos, Development Manager
She / Her
Marcel joined Agrarian Trust as a Development Manager in November 2024, bringing more than 10 years of experience in nonprofit development, grant writing, and fundraising. She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration with a minor in Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations from Western Michigan University. Her professional development includes leadership credentials from Harvard University and certifications in grant writing, project management, budgeting, and marketing design. She is currently advancing her expertise through an e-learning academy with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
As a Black Latina woman, Marcel brings her unique perspective and lived experiences to addressing food insecurity and promoting food sovereignty. She is passionate about building and sustaining local, accessible, and culturally relevant healthy food networks that serve diverse communities nationwide. Her intersectional approach strengthens Agrarian Trust’s mission of supporting equitable and sustainable food systems.
